Nokia Announces New Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia 930, 635, and 630 Models

Nokia stood with its soon to be parent company by releasing a trio of new phones following the Microsoft Build Keynote. They include the 5″ Lumia 930 and the 4.5″ 630 and 635. The new phones all run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 platform. The phone maker said that its entire Windows 8 line would be getting a special update that combines WP 8.1 and unique Nokia features called Lumia Cyan.

Lumia 930

For all intents and purposes the Lumia 930 is Nokia’s new flagship phone. If it looks a bit familiar, the case and feature set are close to the recently released Lumia Icon on Verizon. You get a 5″ full HD 1920×1080 display, a 2.2GHz Snapdron 800 CPU, and 32GB of storage. On the back there is a 20mp camera with Carl Zeiss glass and OIS. Up front there is a 1.2mp wide angle camera. That’s not quite up to par compared to other phones’ front cameras released in the last year or so. For mics, there is a 4-mic array. The phone’s speakers are capable of Dolby Surround Sound. The 930 comes with a 2420mAh battery and standard Qi charging. For world traveling, it has 5 bands of LTE.

The price for the 930 will be $599 and it hits international markets beginning in June. You’ll be able to get yours in 4 colors: black, silver, green, and orange.

Lumia 630/635

The 630 & 635 are two sides of the same entry-level coin. The difference is LTE. The 635 has it, the 630 does not. The 630 also comes in single and dual SIM variants. The 630 has a 4.5″ screen with a 854×480 resolution. The phone’s case has a matte plastic design and is very reminiscent of the iPhone 5C. The CPU is a Snapdragon 400 quad core at 1.2GHz. Storage is 8GB, but it has an SD card slot for up to 128GB of extra storage. There is also 7GB of cloud storage. The rear camera is 5mp and there doesn’t seem to be one up front. The battery is 1830mAh. The phone is overall very low end, but does have one interesting aspect: SensorCore. This seems to be similar to the M7 in that it can be used to store health information to be used in fitness apps.

The 630 single sim will cost $159 while the dual sim will raise that price by $10. The LTE-laden Lumia 635 will cost $189 and be for sale in most markets including the U.S. It’ll come in white, black, yellow, orange, and green.

Final Thoughts

Nokia released two phones that couldn’t be on more opposite ends of the spectrum with the 930 and 630/635. They both seem to be solid entries in their respective markets. The question here is whether Windows Phone 8.1, which thankfully most of the Lumia line will see, will be able to give Nokia the traction to take their hardware in the right direction.

What do you think? Let us know on the comments below, our forums, or on social media.

About Benjamin J. Roethig

Ben is an external Associate Editor at Geek Beat. He can be described connoisseur of things technological. Ben's hobbies include reading up on Military, Naval, and Aeronautical history, playing around with his Macs and iDevices, exploring the mountainous bluffs of Dubuque, IA and Galena, IL, and proving that 15+ years of practice does not make perfect on his guitars. If you want to find him Ben can be found on Twitter (@benroethig), Google (gplus.to/benroethig), and as an occasional guest on Apple related podcasts.

Comments

it’s interesting that this came the same day as MS announcement to give away Windows for Mobile devices under 9″, that almost makes Nokia irrelevant and just a platform in the hopes of emulating the success of Droid